Xmen Evolution: New Genesis
by Ca11umism
Summary: Twelve years after the defeat of Apocalypse, and eight after the death of Charles Xavier, Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey re-open Xavier's to a new class of teen mutants. An OC story featuring all your old favorites with a whole mess of new X-men.
1. Chapter 1

-CHAPTER 1-

"Harris!" Joe jerked his head from where he'd been resting it on his desk, blinking rapidly and looking around the classroom.

"Ye..yes ?" his teacher, a short, dumpy woman in her late forties, stood in front of Joe's desk tapping her foot, her hands on her hips and her left eyebrow raised.

"I asked you what the chemical compound for Calcium-Cyanide is..." Joe thought for a second, letting what the woman had just asked him stir in his brain.

Then he shrugged.

The woman sighed, letting her arms fall to her sides. She turned away from Joe and walked up the aisle of teens to her desk. "Not good enough Harris, maybe an evening of cleaning gum off tables will help teach you to stay awake in class."

She took a pad from the drawer of her desk, wrote a few quick notes on it, and walked back towards Joe to hand it to him.

"Yes Mrs. Morgan" She smiled curtly to him and continued on with her lesson.

Joe looked down at the paper-his detention was tomorrow night after school-and sighed as he slid it into his binder folder.

"Dude," a brown haired boy behind Joe leant forward and whispered over his shoulder. "That sucks. Looks like you'll miss Matt Schaffer's party"

Joe sighed and nodded. "Yeah, but I wasn't going anyway."

The boy behind him furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why?, I thought you were going to hit on Stacy Conolly?"

Joe nodded again, pretending to take notes in his folder. "I was, but these headaches are taking the life out of me. When I get home, I can't find the energy to stand up, let alone go to a party."

The boy suddenly took a more serious tone. "How long's it been now? Three weeks?"

Joe shook his head, raising his eyes if Mrs. Morgan had caught on to the little conversation going near the back of the room. "Almost five. I went to the doctor earlier this week and he said that it was just a string of migraines."

The boy shook his head. "Bull, absolute bull man. You should really get another doctor to check you out. Five weeks worth of headaches aren't just migraines...maybe you have cancer or something."

Joe chuckled, cutting himself off when he realised that the teacher may have heard. When he was sure she hadn't, he spoke again. "I didn't know you cared so much for me, Nick."

Nick shook his head. "Hey, I'm just looking out for my boy," he flicked his hand against the back of Joe's shoulder. "Besides, you can't die without nailing Stacy Conolly," Joe smiled. "Although if you tell her you have cancer, you might get a pity lay." Joe laughed out loud now, but was cut off by the sound of Mrs. Morgan slamming her meter long ruler on his desk.

"HARRIS, WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU?," Joe gulped, looking up at the fuming woman. "A WEEK'S WORTH OF DETENTION, STARTING TOMRROW!"

Joe opened his mouth to object, but decided it was best not to risk it. "Shit" he whispered as his irritated teacher handed him another detention slip.

Later...

Joe turned off the street and onto an alleyway between an old bookstore and a starbucks, his usual shortcut home, his blue eyes on the screen of his phone as he sent a text to Nick about the view of a senior girls ass he got earlier when she tied her shoe after third period. Halfway up the alley, he stopped in mid-step when he felt something cold against the base of his neck.

"D..drop the phone, and p...put y..your hands up," a nervous voice said. Joe did as he was told. "Good. N..now move for...forward," the mugger pushed the gun a little farther into Joe's neck, nudging the teen forward. He felt his knees start to shake.

The cold metal of the gun left his neck for a moment and, thinking that the mugger had run off, Joe began to turn around. "Don't try it." the mugger pushed the gun into the small of his back, and Joe realised the mugger had been kneeling to pick up his grounded phone.

"Alright...alright I'm sorry." Joe apologized. He raised his hands up again. They were trembling as if it were mid-winter.

He felt the gun leave his back and push against his neck again, then heard a series of beeps from his phone as the mugger played with the buttons. "You got any money?" the nervous stutter had disappeared. Obviously the mugger's confidence had risen.

Joe nodded and reached for his pocket, but the gun was pushed harder into his neck.

"Keep your hands up, I don't want you trying anything." he felt the mugger's hand enter his pocket, rummage for a second, then take out his wallet. "You got anything else?' The mugger jabbed his weapon in Joe's neck a few times. Joe shook his head. "Don't screw with me," the mugger jabbed him again, much harder this time.

"I swear...I don't have anything else." Joe said. He could hear the fear in his voice. Joe felt a hand on his shoulder and the mugger pushed him onto his knees. "You stay here and coun..."

"HEY!" The voice of another man tore Joe from his fear.

"HELP!...HE"S GOT A GUN!" the teen screamed over his shoulder to his savior.

The mugger pulled Joe to his feet and wrapped an arm around his neck, putting Joe in between the mugger and the "hero". "DON'T MOVE...I'LL SHOOT THIS KID!"

Joe's eyes found a beat-cop entering the alleyway, his hands out in front of his torso in a non-threatening manner. "Okay. Okay, stay calm. All I want is for everyone to get out of this safely," The officer took a small step forward, and the mugger replied by tightening his hold on Joe, choking him.

The cop stopped in his tracks, and Joe's eyesight began to fade.

"Alright...but please listen, that kid's going to get hurt. Please let go of him," The mugger shook his entire upper body frantically, and in the process, waved Joe around like a ragdoll, causing him to fade even quicker. "PLEASE, YOUR GOING TO KILL HIM," he heard the policeman shout.

Joe's eyes began to glaze over, so much so that now he could only see an outline of the policeman at the end of the alley. Bright colours began to cloud his vison,  
flashing in front of his face like strobe lights at a rock show, then a sudden rainbow flash made him black out.

0oo0oo0

"Doctor? How is he?"

"There's nothing wrong with him. His headaches may be a little more severe for a few days, but he should be fine to leave tomorrow."

"Phew, Okay, thank you doctor."

Joe opened his eyes, only to close them again straight away as a bright light above him hurt his eyes.

"Arrgh...someone turn that off,"

"Joe? Honey it's your mom, do you remember?" Joe felt his mother grab onto his hand.

"Jesus Kerry," Joe heard his father's voice. He could make out the man's slight Scottish brogue anywhere. "He passed out, it's not like he got hit with a hammer." Joe couldn't help but grin at his father's comment.

He opened his eyes again, this time the light was off and he could see around the room without the stinging in his eyes. "What happened?" he looked to his mother, a thin, pretty woman in her late forties, with dark red hair and hazel eyes, then to his father, a tall man, slightly overweight, with the same crystal blue eyes and jet black hair as Joe.

"Well," his mother began. "You were found in that alley by the bookstore," Joe nodded. "The doctors said that you passed out due to dehydration."

'Dehydration?' he thought. No, he was choked out. And why would a police officer just leave him there? did he follow the mugger?

"What about the mugger? And the cop?"

His mother scrunched her brow, and she rested her small hand of Joe's exposed forearm. "What do you mean?"

"I mean where is the guy who pulled the gun on me and the cop who found-"

"Excuse me?" an elegant female voice drifted into the room. The three members of the Harris family turned to the doorway, where a beautiful dark skinned woman with bone white hair, accompanied by a handsome man with short brown hair wearing red lensed glasses and a gorgeous young red head with high cheekbones and bright green eyes, stood.

"Yes?" Joe's father said, a curious look on his face.

The dark skinned woman stepped into the room, and offered her hand to shake Joe's father's, who took it hesitantly. "My name is Ororo Munroe. I am the principal of Xavier's institute for gifted youngsters in New York. You must be Mr. Kenneth Harris?"

Joe's dad nodded, his curious look replaced with a smug grin. Everytime a stranger knew his name it made Kenneth very proud, and he would grin smugly and stick his chest out like a silverback ape.

"Why yes I am," He said, shaking the dark skinned woman's hand vigourously. "How can I help you?"

The woman smiled widely. A beautiful smile of flawless white teeth. "I am here on behalf of the Xavier institute. I would like, with your permission of course, to have my colleagues run a quick test on your son."

Kerry grabbed Joe, who was now sitting up, and hugged him to her breast. "No! I'm not having some stranger do experiments on my son!"

Joe pushed his head from his mother's chest. "Mom! please!" he blushed a little, causing him to suddenly become dizzy.

The woman-Munroe-raised her hand. "I assure you it will not harm Joeseph in any way. In fact, we can do it right here right now."

Kenneth looked down at Joe, who shrugged in his bed. "What would this test include?" Kenneth crossed his arms over his chest, his smug look replaced with one of concern.

Munroe smiled her flawless smile again. "Just a quick looking over by Jean here," the lovely red head smiled at Joe, who couldn't help but blush again. "To determine if he is eligible for a position at our school."

Kenneth thought for a moment, turned to look at his son, then back to the strangers. "Okay," he conceded. "But if anything goes wrong-"

"I can assure you that no harm will come to Joe," Munroe cut in. "This test has been done dozens of times." The glasses wearing man walked around to the wooden table next to Joe's bed, and set down a previously unseen suitcase.

"If I may ask, could we please be alone? It's only for a moment." Munroe said to Joe's parents.

Kenneth hesitated, then nodded a small nod and began towards the door, his wife trailing behind. "We'll be right outside Joe. Call us if you need anything." Joe nodded as his parents left, then felt a little uncomfortable as Jean closed the door behind them, leaving him alone in the room with three strangers.

"Alright Joe," Munroe said. "I would like to offer you a place at Xavier's," Jean sat on the bed next to him and began running her fingers over his temples. Her touch was unbelievably soft.

"Huh?," the teen replied. "But you haven't run any tests yet?"

Munroe chuckled to herself. "This test was only so we could get your parents out of here." he watched as Jean took a device that looked rather like a heart rate monitor out of the suitcase and placed the small nodes on Joe's forehead.

"Why?" Joe said, the device on his head was ice cold.

"Joe, you're a mutant."

Joe thought he misheard. "What?"

Monroe sat on the other side of Joe's bed as Jean took the nodes from his head and placed the device back in the suitcase. "Joe, you're a mutant. I asked for your parents to leave so I could break the news to you subtley."

"Oh yeah," Joe scoffed. "You were real subtle." Munroe grabbed his hand and looked him straight in the eye.

"Joe please, let me explain. Sometimes...Sometimes parents reactions to this kind of news can be scary," Joe looked the woman directly in her dark brown eyes, hoping to find any sign that she was lying. A wink perhaps, that would show she was playing a trick with him.

She was dead serious.

"I asked for us to be alone so you could make a decision without their influence."

"Wait...Wait," Joe said, lifting his hand from Munroe's gentle grip and in front of his chest. "Slow down. How exactly do you know I'm a mutant?"

This time it was Jean who spoke. "At the institute there is a machine I can use to detect young mutants. I noticed you when your powers activated," Joe just looked at her. "I checked your medical records before we came in, and I think that those headaches of yours are being caused by your powers awakening."

Joe thought the situation over for a moment. "Prove it."

Munroe nodded. "Jean?" the redhead nodded, placed her hands on the sides of Joe's head, and closed her eyes. Her hands were soft, and her touch delicate.

"This may feel weird for a moment."

Joe suddenly felt like his head was about to explode, clenching his eyes together to counteract the weird pressure he was feeling in his head. "Joe?, open your eyes."  
he did, the first thing he noticed was that he was looking at himself, as if he was standing in front of a mirror, being choked by the mugger. He watched his own eyes began to fade as the oxygen was cut off from his head, the begin to flash a multitude of colours. Red, green, blue and more. Joe had no clue what was going on, then his jaw dropped in amazement as several small orbs burst from his eyesockets. They span around Joe and the mugger from a moment, then one burst away from the pack and into the police officer's chest.

The officer screamed in torment. Joe tried to run to him, but found he couldn't move, and watched in horror as the man who'd tried to help him fell to his knees, then onto his face, stone dead. Joe's mouth fell open as he watched. Another scream made him turn around, and Joe saw his body fall to the blacktop as the other rainbow orbs span around the mugger like a hive of angry bees, before each one of them flew into the mugger's body, exploding in a bright flash that took over the alley.

When Joe opened his eyes once again, he found himself back in the hospital room, the three strangers surroundin him.

"What was that?" he gasped, wide eyed and panting.

"It's a trick I picked up a while back," Jean said. "It's a reconstruction of your memories into a realistic vision. Are you alright?" she rubbed Joe's back, and he nodded.

"I...I killed that mugger." he said after a moment, realising what he'd done.

"I'm afraid so." Munroe said.

"And the cop...who was just helping me-"

"If you decide to come to Xavier's, we train you to control your powers."

Joe looked up at Munroe, his panting had calmed slightly. "Do you promise?"

The woman nodded. "Yes. We can help you control, and advance them."

Joe nodded. "Okay, I'll go."

"That's good Joe," Munroe said, standing up and walking towards the door. "Get some rest. We'll pick you up from here tomorrow night when you get out. Until then, goodbye." she opened the door and walked out. The guy with the red lensed glasses closed and picked up the suitcase, smiling to Joe as he turned away.

"You made the right decision Joe," Jean said, smiling to him. "If you need anything, call me." she handed him a small white buisness card with the name JEAN GREY printed on it, as well as her mumber and the address of Xavier's on the back, before smiling again and leaving after her cohorts.

Joe looked out the window, watching Munroe talk to his parents, who gave a few sideways glances to Joe, before Kenneth shook her hand and the three left.

Joe's parents walked back in, smiling at him. They began talking, but he paid no attention to them. His mind was on what had just occured. It was a hell of a lot to take in. But he had seen what he could do, and he had seen many times on the t.v what damage mutants that were reckless with their powers could do.

"Joe?"

Joe looked up to his father. "What?"

"We asked if you were sure that you wanted to go to this...school?"

Joe turned to his mother, who smiled sweetly, then back to his father, who had a serious look on his face.

"Well," he sighed. "It's sure beats a week's worth of detention." 


	2. Chapter 2

-CHAPTER 2-

The next evening, Joe found himself in the back of a fancy black town car with his parents and Ms. Munroe. The glasses guy-who Joe had since learned was a teacher named Scott Summers-sat up front driving, with Jean in the passenger seat.

For the last twenty minutes, he had been forced to listen to his parents question them about anything and everything to do with Xavier's.

"And what about sports? Joe has always been very good at basketball." Joe's father questioned Ms. Munroe, who sat on the seat across from him with Joe, as he flipped through an Xavier's pamphlet he'd been given.

"Xavier's offers a wide range of sport activities, from Basketball to Taekwondo. And at Bayville high, where he'll be going to study regular classes, there are several varsity sports teams that I'm sure Joe would be welcome on."

Kenneth nodded absent-mindedly, not looking at Munroe but at a picture in the pamphlet of two young boys throwing a frisbee to one another.

Scott turned the town car off the road and through a large security gate.

"Where are we?" Kerry asked, looking out of her window to a vast concrete field.

"This," Scott said proudly over his shoulder. "Is where the school's private jet lands when we're in Chicago"

The car pulled to a halt and Joe climbed out to find one of the most impressive sights he'd ever laid eyes on.

It was at least sixty feet long, with a sleek, metallic sheen that seemed to glow eerily through the pure black paintjob. The wings were inverted and the cockpit was oddly rounded, like the beak of a igantic bird. He'd could already imagine himself flying around in it, doing various spins and loop-de-loops.

"I see you've taken a liking to the Blackbird." Summers said, walking past the teen as he carried Joe's bags up the short ramp into the interior.

"Blackbird?" Joe asked, looking around the inside, even more amazed by the high tech gizmo's within.

"Yeah, that's what we call the jet...cause it looks like a bird."

Scott lay down Joe's bags under one of the seats, and sat down in the leather pilots chair.

"I can teach you to fly it sometime, if you want."

Joe's eyes widened like a five year old at christmas. "Really? Mister Summers, that would be amazing...thank you so much!"

Summers just grinned. "Don't worry about it. Just, stop calling me Mister Summers?."

"Deal"

"Joeseph!...come say goodbye to your mother and me!"

Joe turned and headed out the same way he came in, finding his parents, Ms. Munroe, and Jean, who was in the middle of giving his mother the schools information.

Both his parents shook hands with both Munroe and Jean, then turned to Joe.

His mother gave him a hug that was so tight he could swear a few of his ribs were cracking. "I want you to call me everyday at eight o.k?...no matter what. And I want you to call me as soon as you get there...And don't forget to brush your teeth after meals...and wear clean underwear-"

"MOM!...I'll be fine I swear." Joe comforted his mother as best he could, but it still didn't stop her from tearing up.

"I promise Joe will be perfectly safe at school Mrs. Harris. I'll make sure of it." Munroe said over the woman's shoulder.

She hugged him again, and began wiping her nose with a tissue from her purse. "Ok...Ok just...be safe Joe."

He nodded, hugged his mother once more, then turned to his father, who offered his hand. "Take care son." Joe shook the man's hand and Smiled.

"I will dad...you take care of mom...she's gonna need it."

Kenneth smiled and pulled his son in for a deep hug.

"Joe? It's time for us to leave." Jean said. Ms. Munroe had already gone inside.

"Alright," He hugged his mother once more, then waved as he stepped up the ramp.

0ooo0ooo0

The trip took less than two hours. Most of that time was spent with Joe asking questions about Xavier's, his classes, and the other students. But, when he asked about his own powers-which as far as he could tell consisted of shooting multi-coloured golf balls from his eyes and making people disappear-the cheery feel that filled the plane faded to a dead silence.

"We don't know what you can do yet Joe," Jean said from her spot behind Scott, who flew the plane like it was a second nature to him.

"What do you mean?" the teen asked. "I'm not a mutant?"

Jean shook her head and smiled. "You're a mutant, Joe. You have the brain pattern of one. It's just that we haven't yet figured out what your powers are specifically, we've never actually met someone that shoots things from their eyes."

"Oi?," Scott said from his seat, turning the plane over a bridge that Joe couldn't recognize.

Jean laughed. "Alright, almost no one." she rolled her eyes to Joe, which Scott didn't notice.

"You shoot stuff from your eyes?" Joe wondered, his face still displaying a smile from Jean's small joke.

Scott nodded and tapped the red sunglasses that folded around his face. "See these things?," Joe nodded. "They keep my eyes from misfiring. I was in an accident when I was a bit younger than you are now, and now I can't control it."

Scott looked over at Joe, whose mouth hung open slightly, and shrugged as if it was no big deal. "Don't you miss getting to see?"

Scott chuckled. "I can still see Joe. I just have to wear glasses all the time. It's fine though. They make me look cool."

Joe grinned politely and turned back to face out of the plane, suddenly very pensive about his situation. What if he couldn't control his powers? The simple thought scared Joe alot more than he thought it should.

"How do I find out what my powers are?" he said after a moment, not even turning to Jean.

"We have ways of learning what you can do. When you've settled in a little bit we'll start your training," Jean said, leaning out from her seat and putting her hand on Joe's shoulder. "Don't worry, it will be hard but I promise that it'll work." Joe-still not looking at her-nodded to show he was listening.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0

When the Blackbird began to descend, Joe did his best to get a look of the landing field that they were coming down on, and was surprised that it wasn't a airstrip but a large basketball court.

"Welcome to Xavier's Joe." Scott said when he saw the teen's face.

Scott hit a button on the plane's dash, and the half-court line of the basketball court split in two, revealing a large gap that the blackbird descnded into.

"What the?" Joe gasped in amazement as the plane floated down gently into the completely dark space beneath the basketball court. The Blackbird touched down, and it was dark for a moment, then hundreds of flood lights flickered on, bathing the space-which went off a hundred meters each way-in a warm orange glow, illuminating an extensive collection of luxury cars an motorbikes that were lined up in a near perfect formation around them.

"All these cars are yours?" Joe looked to Scott, then over his seat to Ms. Munroe, who shook her head.

"No Joeseph, these cars belong to Xavier's students. Meaning you." she spoke the last part with another charming smile on her face.

Joe smiled even wider. Cars had always interested him. "I can drive these?"

Scott nodded. "Yes. But first you'll have to pass my driving test."

"I have my license."

Scott chuckled. "Not your Xavier's license Joe. My test is for these cars, they're not built the same as others."

Scott turned off the Blackbird's engine-which didn't make much of a difference because the plane ran so smoothly-then the four occupants left their seats and, after Scott and Joe took up the teen's belongings, left the plane through the steel ramp that descended from it's hull.

Joe couldn't help but be drawn to the cars, but Jean pulled him away, stating that he'd be able to look at them the next day.

It was then that Joe realised that it was almost midnight, and he was exhausted, so he followed the group into a silver walled elevator that carried them up to a hallway that looked like it was out of a horror movie. Four suits of armour, two on each side guided them down the hall, and ancient paintings that Joe assumed were very expensive hung all over the walls.

He followed his teachers into an entrance hall, where a massive wooden staircase that split halfway up and lead into two different wings of the mansion sat. Ororo stopped them.

"Okay Joeseph, Scott will show you your room. The left wing is for males and the right for females. Under no circumstances are you to enter the right wing without my permission, understood?"

Joe nodded, and Ororo smiled, said goodnight, and walked off down another hallway adjacent to the one they had entered from.

Scott and Jean lead Joe up the main staircase, where Jean smiled and headed up the right stairs while the two males went left, onto a landing that took them into yet another hallway, this one with a series of large oak doors that Joe could only assume lead to the bedrooms.

Scott stopped at the door at the very end of the hall on the right, which he opened and walked into. Joe followed him in and-though he had half expected it to be classy-was still surprised by how luxurious it was.

The walls were a burgundy colour, and a large four poster bed sat in the far left corner. A work desk sat in the opposite corner to the bed, with an expensive looking laptop sitting open on top, and a series of textbooks standing in bookends behind the computer.

"Here we go," Scott said, putting Joe's suitcase at the foot of the bed and looking around. "Bed, desk, closet...the usual."

Joe nodded. "Thanks Scott." The man smiled and walked out into the hallway.

"Don't mention it. I'll come up and get you in the morning okay?.' Joe smiled this time, and then waved as his teacher walked off down the hall before he closed the door and began getting changed. 


	3. Chapter 3

-CHAPTER 3-

Joe woke up to a beam of sunlight coming in through the window and bearing down on his face, needing to cover his eyes with his forearm until his sight adjusted. He considered falling back to sleep-he was still exhuasted from the events of the last two days-but just couldn't. So instead, after groaning his annoyance, he pulled himself from the bed.

Still in his bed clothes-a faded red t-shirt and pyjama pants with a cartoon moose on them-he headed out into the hallway. He had no clue what time it was, but the sun's glare that entered through a window on the hallway's far wall next to Joe's door told him it was early afternoon.

Joe headed down the same way he had come up the night before with Scott. Slowly descending the wooden stairs into the entrance hall, suddenly realising he had no clue where to go. He considered calling out, but decided it would be rude to do so, so instead he took the path up the hallway which Ms. Munroe took the night before. It lead him into a massive room the size of the entrance hall, with shelves of books that went up and touched the roof and a series of expensive looking leather couches in the centre.

He found himself looking at the books, gliding his hand along the shelf until he found one he was especially interested in, "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. He flipped through the browned pages, and was only half-surprised to find that it was a first edition. 'I expected as such,' he said to himself. 'This place is so fancy I'd be shocked if it wasn't.'

"You are the new boy, right?"

A cool, elegant voice caught Joe off guard, and he looked back over his shoulder to the small sitting room. There was no one else in there.

"Hello?," he looked from side to side, and for a moment, thought he was day dreaming.

"I am up here," Joe looked up to the roof, finding a stunning young woman floating right above the archway where he had entered the room. She was holding a large book open in her arms, and was looking down at Joe with a thin smile on her unbelievably pretty face.

"Uhh, yeah, hi...My name's Joe...I'm new here."

The girl descended so elegantly from the shelf to the floor that Joe could have mistaken her for an angel. She was absolutely perfect. High cheekbones and porcelain like skin, framed wonderfully by a head of pale golden hair that matched the colour of wheat. She looked at him through a pair of almond shaped eyes that were a such a deep emerald green, Joe couldn't help but stare mindlessly at them.

But it wasn't just her dazzling features that made her so beautiful, it was the way she stood. She carried herself so elegantly, much like a royal would, and it gave the girl a ethereal, confident glow.

"I know you are new Joeseph," she held out her free hand, which, after a second of thinking about what she was doing, Joe realised she wanted to shake his, and he took it, again amazed. Though this time it was by how soft her skin was. He didn't even realize that the girl had started speaking again.

"My name is Samantha, but my code-name is Grace."

Joe nodded, then scrunched his brow. "Code-name?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, code-name. It's the moniker that I go under when out in the field so as to not have my true identity revealed."

Joe smiled awkwardly. He couldn't be comfortable around this girl for some reason. It irritated him.

"Do you have one yet?" Joe shook his head.

"I don't even know what I can do yet." The black haired boy said, shrugging his shoulders. He looked down to the girl, who closed the book she was holding and lay it down on an arm of one of the couches.

"Have you met anybody else yet?" Joe shook his head.

Samantha smiled and beckoned him through the doorway that he'd come in from. "I would get changed first, if I were you."

Joe blushed, humiliated by the fact that the most mesmerising girl he'd ever met had just seen him in his pyjamas, then nodded before running up the staircase back to his room.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0

He'd pulled on a black and white sleeved raglan shirt-one not unlike like a baseball player's jersy-a pair of blue jeans and his favorite red converse shoes, he carried himself down the staircase to where Samantha sat waiting on one of the last stairs, her back straight and her hands gently resting in her lap.

"Are you ready Joeseph?" He nodded, and she lead him through a series of hallways until they reached a kitchen/living area where two boys sat on a couch, one eating potato chips from a large plastic bowl and the other playing a video-game on a big screen television.

"Nate?, Liam?, please meet Joeseph...he is new here." Samantha said, walking in front of the television. The two boys turned their heads to look at Joe, who waved awkwardly.

"Yo bro!," The boy eating chips said. He was very small with shaggy brown hair and wide hazel eyes that popped out of his head a little, making him look like a bug.  
Joe also took notice to the fact that he wasn't actually sitting, he was crouching on the couch cushion. "Name's Leapfrog...how you doin'?"

Joe smiled at the stranger's friendliness. "Fine thanks. You?"

Leapfrog grinned widely. "Savvy bro...absolutely savvy."

The video-game boy stood up to shake Joe's hand.  
"Hey, I'm Nate, but everyone calls me Toro." Joe took the boy's hand, just now realising how much bigger Nate was than him. Joe was six foot one, and this Nate guy was at least six inches taller than that, with sandy blonde hair and very dark brown eyes that were so close to being black it was scary.

"Toro?" Joe asked, wondering why he had such a name. He understood Grace and Leapfrog-it was impossible to distinguish Samantha from an angel and Liam from a frog, but apart from this guy's size, he didn't seem like an angry bull at all.

"Yeah bro, T-man right here," Leapfrog suddenly sprung up and landed on the taller boy's shoulder like a parrot on a perch. "This cat right here? Absolutely unstoppable when he starts running, like a freaking panzer with a ferrari engine bro," Leapfrog ruffled Toro's hair and then jumped back to his spot on the couch where he began playing the bigger boy's video game.

The large boy shrugged, as if Leapfrog had said all there was to say, and Joe did the same.

The two laughed.

"Okay. Do either of you know where the others are?" Grace asked, standing completely straight with her hands behind her back.

Toro shrugged, but Leapfrog semi-turned, his eyes still on the tv, and spoke over his shoulder to the girl. "Harmony is in the library working on Miss Munroe's Egyptian essay, and you know Captain buzzkill is probably following Cyclops around, so I'd check the garage."

Grace smiled then beckoned Joe through another doorway on the opposite side of the room.

Toro waved as the two left the room, and Leapfrog hollered after them. "Catch ya' later bro!" Joe heard when they were already a third of the way down the hall, which made him laugh.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0 

Grace lead Joe in silence down another series of hallways that Joe was sure he'd need a map to navigate by himself, and through a gigantic arch into what must have been the largest room in the mansion.

One long desk about twenty feet long, with desk lamps stationed at random points along it to give light to students working late at night, sat in the middle, and a dozen rows of books made it look like an actual state library. The roof was so high up that Joe couldn't completely make out the patterns that covered it, but recognized some famous scenes from history.

Grace suddenly turned down one of the alleys, where the two found a dark haired figure sitting with their legs crossed and their nose in a leather bound book.

"Hello Crystal," The girl looked up, her mouth slightly agape, and Joe got a better look at her.

She was Chinese, and very pretty, with black hair that was completely straight and fell behind her ears, presumably to keep strands from falling into her eyes as she read. Her eyes themselves were dark and magnified by a pair of half-moon glasses that, due to the frames having a golden sheen, Joe assumed had to be very expensive.

"Hello. How are you Samantha?," the girl said with a flawless smile as she closed her book and took off her glasses, folding them and sliding them into the breast pocket on the blue shirt she was wearing.

"Well, thank you. I would like you to meet Joeseph, he is the new student here." The asian girl stood up and straightened the long skirt she was wearing, then offered him a small hand, which Joe took and gently shook.

"A pleasure to meet you Joeseph, welcome to Xavier's."

Joe smiled. "Hi. It's good to meet you too Crystal."

The asian girl smiled before shaking her head. "Samantha is the only one that calls me Crystal. All the guys, and even miss Munroe and miss Grey, call me Harmony."

Joe's eyes widened. "Harmony? What do you do?"

Harmony smiled her white smile again, then opened her mouth and started to sing softly.

Her voice was incredible, that was the only way you describe it. It was as if someone was playing a harp very carefully, making sure that they didn't pluck any note to hard and over-emphasize any of the notes to make the song as flawless as possible. He closed his eyes and listened to the heavenly ballad in his head. Joe felt the air around him thin, as if he was floating, before he opened his eyes and realizing that actually was floating a good three feet above the floor.

"WHAT?"

Crystal stopped singing and Joe fell the three feet to the floor, where he collapsed in a heap from the sudden impact.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" Joe gasped, his eyes wide as he lay in a heap on the floor. Harmony held out her hand, which Joe took, and she helped him to his feet.

"Due to my mutation, my vocal chords are-according to Miss Grey at least-around a hundred times tougher than a normal human. So my singing voice forms a wave in the air, and it allows me to pick things up, make barriers, anything I want...Within reason.

Joe was still mildly shocked by what this small girl just did with her voice. "What do mean, within reason?"

Harmony shrugged. "Well, my voice is still a voice, and it has it's limitations. If I lift something that is too heavy, it strains my vocal chords and I have to rest them, just like a singer."

"How did your parents react when they found out that you could do that?," Joe asked, curious.

The girl giggled. "My parents think that this is an exclusive music school for opera and broadway."

Joe grinned.

"HARMONY! I'VE TOLD YOU NOT TO USE YOUR VOICE FOR FUN!"

The three teens turned to the large arch that Grace and Joe had entered from, where a handsome boy had just walked in and was walking up the aisle to them. He had a pair of grey blue eyes, and pale brown hair cut very short. He approached them with a frustrated look on his face,and, without even taking notice of Joe and Grace, pointed his finger in Harmony's face.

"I've told you your voice is too delicate to just start singing for no reason!"

Joe, who didn't want Harmony to get in trouble for something he caused, tooka step in between the two. "Hey, mate...It's my fault. I asked to see what she could do." He said with a mildly authentic smile on his face.

The boy looked Joe straight in the eye, and his grey blue eyes gave him an ice cold stare. "And who are you, exactly?"

Harmony looked over Joe's shoulder, having to stand on her toes due to the height difference between the two. "This is Joe, Lachlan! He's the new boy from...where are you from exactly?" Joe looked over his shoulder at the girl for a second then back to Lachlan.

"Chicago," He said, holding out his hand for Lachlan to shake, though the other boy didn't take it.

"I don't care if he's from the Moon, you do not use your voice outside of the danger-room...UNDERSTOOD?" Harmony nodded with her head down.

"And YOU," The boy looked Joe in the eye again. "Since this is your first day I'll give you a pass. But the next time you convince Harmony-or any other X-man for that matter-to use their powers outside the danger-room, I'll give you a week's worth of detention polishing every car in the garage...understood?"

Joe looked at the boy with one eyebrow raised and his mouth agape, not sure if the kid was joking or if he really was a gignatic hardass. "Uh-huh."

Lachlan nodded, then, after looking at all three of them in quick succession, turned and walked out of the library with the same pace that he had entered with.

"What just happened?" Joe said, his expression hadn't changed.

"That was Lachlan, our head-boy. Don't feel bad, he's that way with everybody." Harmony said, turning back to her book.

"Head-boy?"

"Yes, head-boy. Seeing as how there is only Miss Grey, Miss Munroe and Mister Summers here most of the time, Lachlan and I were made head-boy and girl to watch over the younger students." Grace said, her hands behind her back.

Joe nodded. "Ohh."

"Yes. It is only because the two of us are both eighteen."

Joe nodded again. "What's the danger-room?"

Harmony looked up from her book, first to Joe, then to Harmony, and smiled. "He hasn't seen it yet?"

Grace shook her head. "He only woke up a few moments ago."

Harmony closed her book again, still smiling her perfect smile, then stood and took Joe's hand.

"I think it's time then." 


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4:

"This is the danger-room?," Joe asked, looking out of a large viewing window built into the top corner of a dome shaped room, where the walls were made of a non-reflective metal, and featured three shutters at the end, which greatly resembled garage doors."what's so special about it?"

Harmony, who had been typing a code into one of the many computers that lined the small viewing room, spoke without looking at Joe. "The danger-room was created by Professor Xavier-He's the guy who started the X-men-over ten years ago. He originally intended it to only be a place for mutants to learn control over their powers and to experiment with them in a place where they wouldn't have to worry about any consequences,"

She pressed another key on the keyboard and a hidden door opened up next to Joe's position, which immediately made him want to look inside.

"Hey,"Harmony said before Joe could get a glimpse of what was inside."This is the girls room," She pointed to an empty wall. "The boys is over there."

Joe looked over to the blank wall with a puzzled look on his face. "There's nothing-"

"It's hidden."

Joe nodded awkwardly. "What's in there?"

Grace walked into the open space and out of Joe's view. "This is where our suits are stored, Joeseph." Harmony followed after her and laughed at the vibrant shade of red Joe's face had suddenly turned.

Joe turned away, not wanting to offend the girls, and went back to looking at the empty metal room, though he could still here Harmony's voice coming from inside,  
this time with a slight echo.

"As I was saying, the danger-room was originally a place for mutants to experiment with their powers. But after the formation of the X-men, it received a re-vamp, and was outfitted to be what it is today, becoming a sort of obstacle course that caters to each of us."

How could that be? Joe thought. This was just an empty room, not an obstacle course.

He turned around, preparing to ask a question, but instead his jaw dropped. "What are you wearing?"

Instead of the skirt and blue shirt she'd been wearing, Harmony was now dressed in a pair of dark, skintight pants and a halter-top looking sleeveless shirt that gave Joe a rather generous view of her stomach. A large yellow X was emblazoned on her left breast, and a yellow metal belt was fastened tightly around the girls thin waist, the same large X forming the belt buckle.

"It's my suit. Each one is specifically made to cater to our strengths." Joe pointed to the girls stomach.

"That was specifically made for you?" he said, staring absently mindedly at the girl midsection. He may have been a mutant, but that didn't stop hormones from taking their toll on him.

Harmony pulled a hair-tie from her wrist and began fashioning her dark hair into a ponytail. "Would you mind not staring? I have to have my stomach exposed, it keeps the pressure off my diaphragm and makes my voice stronger."

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect...well...that." he looked away, out the window to the danger-room floor. "How do you train in here?" he said quickly, trying to change the subject.

"Every now and then a guy called Hank comes to the mansion and generates a series of new simulations for us to work with. We each have over a hundred specialised programs within the room's database that train us to work with different situations, and then an infinite number of group sessions that mix our personalised ones together. In order to get us to work as a team.". The girl had gone back to working at her computer.

"They include many different things. For example, I have one where I use my voice to stall a bunch of falling weights that eject from the ceiling...it's supposed to simulate a building collapsing or a cave in."

"And I have one where I fly from the top of the danger room to catch a package before it hits the ground." Joe turned to see Grace in her suit, which looked remarkably like Harmony's apart from the fact that her stomach didn't show, and she had a small cape that hung from her shoulders and was connected to the wrists of her elbow length gloves. Her hair was also in a ponytail, and a thin collection of the pale golden strands hung over her right eye.

Harmony stopped typing and pressed a button on the far wall, to which a small square retracted into the wall slightly before sliding up to reveal a rack with dozens of walkie-talkies and other electronic things. She picked up two, and threw one to Grace, who slid it onto her ear with one quick motion, then the other to Joe, who did the same, albeit rather awkwardly.

"I'll need you to type in a few commands every now and then, okay?," Joe nodded. "Good, I'll give you the signal, then just press enter." The two girls walked into the elevator, and Grace pressed the button, closing the doors and carrying them down to the floor.

Joe watched out the window and waited for the girls to come into view. After a moment, he saw them appear from almost directly beneath the window, then Harmony turned and stuck a thumbs up to him.

He nodded, went to the wall sized computer and pressed the enter button, and immediately, one of the metal shutters on the far side of the far side of the room raised and a series of large metal hula-hoops on a motorized arm emerged from the space inside. The arm clicked, and the hoops fell into a pile on the floor infront of the mutant girls. Harmony opened her mouth slightly and they floated up into the air, forming a figure eight pattern in the air. Grace raised off the ground slowly, starting to navigate her way through the hoop formation.

After a few minutes of warming up, Harmony began rearanging the hoops as Grace flew through them, causing the flying girl to think faster on her feet-or in the air, as was the case.

The girls went on with this exercise for almost fifteen minutes, with Harmony making it harder and harder for the other girl to manuever, often flipping the rings right before Grace flew through them, needing her to stop suddenly and speed up when needed, effectively pushing the girl to her limits.

"Joe?," Harmony's voice erupted in his head so suddenly that he turned around, thinking she was behind him before remembering the device in his ear.

"Joe, if you can hear me, press the head-set into your eardrum before you speak." Joe did so, feeling a little foolish about his lack of knowledge on the device, and spoke.

"What is it?"

"I need you to open another simulation okay? type in ATLAS, then get down here."

Joe scrunched his brow. "I don't even know what I can do yet. I'd be in danger."

Harmony looked up at him from the floor. "No you won't. This is just a quick obstacle course...it'll be fun."

Joe thought to himself for a second, then walked to the computer and typed Atlas into the database. He hit enter then walked to the elevator, hitting the down button.

When he came out on the danger-room floor, he turned in circles a few times to get a grasp on how big the area was. If he threw a football as far as he could from one side he would probably only make it halfway. "Ready Joeseph?" he turned to Harmony and Grace, the latter of whom was floating a few feet off the ground, and noticed that they'd been surrounded by a group of different activities, like what you found in gym class.

"Are you sure I should be doing this?...I don't think I could handle falling rubble or weights."

Harmony smiled and shook her head. "I told you, this is a simple obstacle course, there's nothing dangerous about it. I just assumed you were getting bored doing nothing up there."

Joe smiled and Harmony lead him over to the course, where the two girls began instructing him on what to do.

They carried on like this for a while, with Joe picking up on the routine rather quickly. Jump over a bar, then climb a wall, then crawl under a net that hung a foot or so off the ground. It was actually kind of fun when he got the hang of it.

"HEY...WHAT ARE YOU WASTING YOUR TIME DOING THAT FOR?," The group turned, with Joe halfway up one of the walls, to see Leapfrog and Toro waving to them from the viewing room.

"LET'S SEE WHAT THE NEW KID CAN REALLY DO" the smaller boy ran out of view, to what Joe assumed was the computer.

"Wait Liam, Joe doesn't know what he can do yet" Harmony said into her earpiece. "We're just running through an obstacle course."

No answer.

"Liam?...we're not running anything serious with Joe," No answer.

Leapfrog had yelled to them from the viewing window. He wasn't wearing a headset.

"LIAM?...LIAM DON'T CHANGE THE SIMULATION!," The girl yelled up to the window, but Leapfrog couldn't hear them, and Toro had gone out of view as well, most likely to the computer with the other boy.

"ACTIVATE-SIMULATION-7881" a computerised voice echoed throughout the room.

"They can't hear us. Joeseph, get to the elevator, we'll keep you safe," Grace spoke so softly, it seemed as if she wasn't alarmed at all.

Joe did as she said though, he didn't want to die his first day here. He dropped from the wall, landing on his back, then jumped up and began sprinting the hundreds of yards to the elevator bay.

"JOE!..DUCK!," The boy turned to his right, finding a large circular saw blade flying at him, and froze on the spot.

"JOE!...WEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Harmony's voice screeched around the room, and with the sound of a fork hitting a glass, the blade flung itself up into the air and out of Joe's way.

Before the boy could start moving again, he felt himself lift off the floor and looked over his shoulder to see Grace carrying him from beneath the armpits. "GRACE?...  
WHA?,"

"Joeseph stay still, I have never carried someone as heavy as you before." He tried his best to not fidget, but found it hard being suspended so far off the ground with only the strength of a teenage girl to hold him.

"SAM!" Harmony's voiced echoed again, and the two flying mutants looked to the left, seeing another giant saw blade gliding towards them.

Grace tried to raise the two above the blade's flight path, but, due to the sudden change, she lost grasp on the boy. She tried to grab his wrist, but the blade chose that moment to glide through, separating the two, and Joe began to fall..

He stopped suddenly. Harmony had caught him in her voice, but again, started to fall when one of the blades hit her in the back and caused her to lose concentration.

That was when it happened. He must have realised that there was no saving him, known that he was falling to his death, because his vision became cloudy, and bright colours started to flash in front of his eyes.

That was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0

"Is he going to be alright Miss Grey?" Grace's emotionless voice was the first thing Joe heard when he regained conciousness.

He didn't open his eyes, but he knew he was in his bed, he recognized the feel of the sheets.

"He's going to be fine. His mind just isn't attuned to releasing that much psionic energy so quickly." Jean's voice was soothing, and her words gave him comfort.

"He's psychic? like you?" this voice was Leapfrog's, Joe felt slightly angry just hearing him speak.

"No, but it seems those flashing orbs that come from his eyes are some sort of energy manipulation."

"So I'm psychic, but not psychic?" he opened his eyes, and found every mutant in the mansion apart from Scott and miss Munroe standing around his bed.

Jean smiled to him, and put her incredibly soft hand on his forehead. "Your still a bit hot. Don't move much for a while okay?" he nodded and the woman left his bedside for a moment, letting the others, apart from Lachlan, climb onto the bed.

"Bro..I..I'm sorry, I didn't know that you couldn't control yourself yet..." Leapfrog said, he was obviously angry with himself.

Joe raised his hand, cutting off the other boy. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine, just a little dizzy." he smiled to show he wasn't angry at Liam, even though he was. He just felt it best not to make enemies here.

Leapfrog smiled. "We're cool?" Joe closed his fist, and Liam bumped it with his own.

"We're cool."

Jean walked back over and gave him a glass of water. "I'll have to do personal classes with you until you learn to release your energy. Otherwise..." He sipped his drink as the woman watched.

Jean put her hand to her mouth. "Could we have a moment alone?" she looked at the other students, who looked at each other.

"Of course professor," Lachlan said. "X-men, out the door, first one to the lounge room versus me in street-fighter." The other mutants sighed before shuffling out the wooden door into the hallway.

Jean closed the door, then took Joe's glass and placed it on the bedside table.

"Joeseph, I'm going to tell you about Professor Xavier."

"I know about him, Harmony told me he created the X-men."

"Yes, but I want to tell you about how he died," Jean sat down next to him on the bed, and began looking down at her hands. "About eight years ago, I started to get headaches every few days, some of which lasted for hours. Professor Xavier tried to figure out what was wrong, and discovered that because I'd been storing so much of my potential energy without regularly releasing it, I'd developed a...well, a kind of balloon of energy, which both gave me the head aches and made me unstable with my powers."

Joe looked at the woman with his mouth open. He already knew where this was going.

"One night, during an attack on the mansion by a mutant called Bishop, I felt myself strained as I tried to hold him off of the Professor. My mind became foggy and too much of the energy inside my head released...and the blast killed both the Bishop and the Professor,"

Jean looked up to the boy, tears had formed in her eyes. "Ever since then, I've had to release my psychic energy everyday, because I was afraid I'd hurt Scott...in fact, I was afraid to even start the school up again, because I didn't want to hurt anybody. But, I was convinced that I could control it, and Scott and Ororo forgave me so I," She looked him directly in the eye. "You mustn't tell anyone. None of the other students know. And you must also promise me that you will take special care with what you can do, alright?"

Joe nodded to her. "I promise."

Jean smiled and wiped her eyes."Good. As I said, I'll have to do special one on one sessions with you, to teach you to release excess energy safely..."

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0 


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5:**

On Monday morning, Joe found himself sitting in the office of Bayville high, miss Munroe next to him. He'd had to come in earlier than the other students to sign all his paper work and meet the principal, and since Munroe was considered his legal guardian, she had to accompany him to oversee his enrollment. He had already filled out the files and was currently waiting to be beckoned into the principal's office by the office assistant.

Joe's thoughts were wary. Originally, he wasn't actually supposed to come to school that day. Jean had insisted that he wasn't up to it after his 'incident' in the danger-room two days before. It took a long time out of Joe's Sunday afternoon to convince the woman that he felt fine, and, finally, Jean reluctantly agreed to let him go on the grounds that he called her the second he began feeling odd.

"Miss Munroe and Mr...Harris?" Joe looked up from the school leaflet he'd been reading to the brown haired woman in her mid-fifties, who sat behind a desk on the other side of the room.

"Yes Dianne?" Munroe said, standing up and walking over to the woman.

"Mr. Lotry is free, please follow me." she smiled and beckoned the two to a door as she stood up from her desk.

Joe stood up, collected his bag and the papers he'd had to sign, and shuffled after the two women through a doorway and into a wide office. It's walls were covered in dozens of framed degrees from various universities. The head of a great Elk was mounted on the wall next to the doorway. Sitting at the back of the room, behind a handcarved Oak desk, sat a bald, dark skinned man in a white dress shirt and burgundy vest with matching tie. His suit jacket was hung over the back of his chair.

"Ororo!...always a pleasure to see my favorite principal!" The man grinned as he stood up, revealing his height as being at least seven feet tall, and walked over to Munroe, leaning over to hug the woman, who gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"It's good to see you as well, Ezekiel." she said as he lead her to a chair beside his desk.

The woman sat down, and Lotry turned to face Joe. "This is my new student Ezekiel, Joeseph Ewan Harris." Ororo said, crossing one leg over the other and placing her hands in her lap.

"Joeseph Harris! a pleasure. Welcome to Bayville high." The man offered Joe his large hand, which must have been the size of a shovel, and the boy shook it.

"Thanks, Mr. Lotry." the man beckoned for Joe to take the spare seat next to Munroe, who had been smiling the entire time.

Lotry chuckled, and went to sit in his wide backed leather chair. "Please, Joe, call me Mr Z...everyone does."

Joe smiled in reply and handed over his paper work, which Lotry took and looked over. He nodded and placed them on his desk. "Okay, everything seems to be in perfect order, I'll have someone come up an take you to your first class."

Joe nodded, smiling back.

Lotry pressed and held a button on his phone. "Dianne?...could you send someone up from room One-Seven-Nine please?"

A second passed. "Certainly Mr. Lotry."

The man stood up again, and walked to a espresso maker on the far wall. "Coffee?" he said over his shoulder. She nodded.

"How's Paul doing?" she took a small cup from Lotry, and sipped it politely.

Lotry shook his head. His demeanor suddenly changed from happy and charming to melancholic. "He still acts out. Pushed a younger boy down the stairs the other day. We had him tested the week before last to see if it was ADD, but..." Lotry shrugged.

Ororo shook her head. "It's a shame, he can be such a nice boy."

They group sat in silence for a few minutes, Joe was a little uncomfortable about how simple it was for him to be accepted. But his anxiety subsided when a knock the door made all three turn their attention to a petite girl with fair hair that hung behind her ears, and round green eyes that gave her face an incredibly youthful look, enter. She was dressed in t-shirt, coloured a very pale shade of purple, which fit her small frame perfectly, and black jeans that looked brand new.

"Mr. Z, Miss Ph-Phillips told me to come...up here...have I done something wrong?" The girls voice was very squeaky, and Joe noticed that her lip trembled as she spoke to the principal. She toed into the room hesitantly, giving a quick glance to Joe and Ororo beore returning her attention to Lotry and raising a pair of gloved hands to her chest.

"No, not at all Cassandra," Lotry beckoned for the girl to come in closer. "I want you too meet our latest prisoner," the man chuckled at his joke. "Joeseph Harris." Joe smiled, trying to look as genuine as possible.

"Hi" he said, standing up and offering the girl his hand. The girl winced, and he retracted his arm after realising he'd scared her. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to-"

"No, don't worry about it Joey," Lotry smiled. "Cassandra is just a little shy...aren't you?" The girl nodded awkwardly, then looked down.

Lotry stood up and walked over to the girl, putting his hand on the much shorter girl's shoulder. "Cassie, could you please guide my new student around school today?...I'm sure your help would be appreciated." Cassie looked up at the man and the two smiled.

"Y-yes Mr...Z." turning back to Joe. She turned and walked out the door, leaving Joe wondering what the hell he was supposed to do.

"Go on Joeseph, I'll have Lachlan check up on you later." Ororo said, handing him his bag. He nodded, shook Lotry's hand again, then walked out after the girl.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0

Joe had to run to reach Cassie, who took remarkably long strides for someone so small. "So, how long have you gone here?" he said after a moment, trying to form a rapport with the girl. Cassandra stopped suddenly and stuck her gloved finger into his chest.

"Alright, listen. Zeke wants me to lead you around, but I'm not going to be your friend okay?...So you do what I tell you, then go back to hanging out with your weirdo Xavier friends." She turned on her heels started up the corridor again, leaving Joe with his mouth hanging open.

'What the hell just happened?' he asked himself, looking after the girl, who hadn't slowed down.

"Are you coming?" he began running after the girl, but was careful to not get too close to her. He didn't want to get screamed at again by this 'shy' girl.

She lead him down a flight of stairs and through another hall, until they reached a classroom that Joe would have guessed was almost directly beneath the principal's office. Cassie stopped and pointed for Joe to enter, which he did, then followed him into a room with a whole bunch of students surrounding a table in the centre, where a woman with curly brown hair was pouring something into a large glass beaker.

"Miss...Ph-Phillips?..I-I have the new boy." Joe's eyes widened, and he looked around to Cassie, who'd suddenly lost all her venom and become shy again, with her hands raised to her chest.

"Ooh, hello there, you are?" the woman said from behind a pair of large plastic glasses.

"Joe Harris...Miss Phillips." he said, looking around at the dozen or so students whose eyes were glued to him. The only one who wasn't looking was a boy who stood next to the teacher. It was Lachlan.

"Fantastic...Take a seat where it's free then come watch this"

Joe nodded, dropped his bag on an empty desk near the back, then walked over to stand next to Lachlan, who gave him a curt nod before turning back to the teacher's experiment.

0oooo0ooo0ooo0ooo0oo0oo0

The lesson went by quickly. All of it was spent watching Phillips pour various chemicals with ridiculously long names into beakers filled with chemicals with other ridiculously long names. By the end, He had almost fallen asleep. Chemistry bored him more than anything.

At the end of the class, Joe noticed that Cassie had left without him, but he didn't mind because the girl scared him a little bit. Instead, Lachlan told him to follow him and brought Joe down the hall to an over-sized canteen, where hundreds of students sat eating some sort of slop from trays. A giant golden bird was painted on the far wall, with the words 'GO BAYVILLE HAWKS' in bright red accompanying it.

Joe followed Lachlan to the back, where he found the rest of the Xavier students sitting together in what, due to the teens having such different styles and attitudes, looked like a scene from the breakfast club.

"YO, JOE...HOW'S IT GOING BRO?." Leapfrog cried as the boys approached, crouching on the seat and waving a fork wildly, the process of which made the teens at the tables surrounding theirs turn their heads. Leapfrog held out his fist and Joe bumped it to be polite.

"What's up?"

Joe took a seat on the end, and Lachlan sat next to Grace opposite him. He looked down to see what the others were eating. It wasn't the mushy slop that the rest of the teens were reluctantly dining on.

"Jean makes our lunch," Harmony said from her spot opposite Toro, taking notice of the young man's puzzled look. "Here." she reached underneath the table and pulled a small tupperware container from her bag, handing it to Joe, who pulled off the lid to find a pleasant looking concoction of vegetables and rice.

"Thanks." He took up a plastic fork and began picking at his food.

The meal went on, and not much happened. Apart from the usual 'How are you liking school?' cliche questions of course. It was when Joe turned to look out at the rest of the cafeteria that he noticed Cassie sitting on the other side of the room, surrounded by group of students even quirkier than their own.

One sat with his legs propped on the seat, his back leaning against the wall where the table stood. Joe couldn't make out his face, as a blanket of bright blue hair covered his eyes, and an oversized pair of head-phones hung over his ears.

The next was a girl, who Joe could have easily mistaken for Grace. Pale blonde hair, a perfectly straight back. If it weren't for the fact that Grace sat right across from him, Joe would have bet money it was her.

The third was boy, dark skinned, with matching hair and eyes, and a very sour look on his face. Then sat Cassie, who had her arms crossed in front of her. Joe couldn't tell if she was in 'shy' mode or not at the moment.

And the last was another boy, with very slick blonde hair, dark green eyes, and an extremely smug look on his face. At first thoughts, Joe assumed he was a male model or something, due to the expensive looking dress shirt he was wearing, and the fact that most of the girls in the cafeteria-apart from the girls at their two tables of course-had their eyes glued to him.

"Who are they?" he asked, pointing over to the other table with his fork hand.

The group-apart from Grace and Lachlan-looked over to where Joe was pointing, and laughed.

"What?" Joe said, obviously not getting the joke.

"That's Eric and his gang," Harmony said. Her voice was full of spite, and she pursed her lips.

Joe put down his now empty container and leant in. "You don't like them?"

Harmony smirked. "It's that obvious?," Joe grinned. "I don't like them because-"

"She doesn't like them because she has a crush on Eric, and he'll only hang out with them." Leapfrog cut in. Toro snorted into his food, which was three times the size of everyone else's.

Harmony shot Leapfrog a scowl before turning her attention back to her food. "Why do you want to know?"she said, not lifting her head. Joe could tell she was blushing.

"No reason, it's just Cassie was the one who guided me to class and...well...she's kinda weird." He shrugged, then turned back to look at the girl.

"They're all weird," Leapfrog said. "They're nothing alike, but they'll only hang out with each other." He threw down his container and yawned.

"Their not weird...they're just from the same orphanage, so of course they'll stick together." Harmony snapped back at him.

Leapfrog smirked. "See," he said to Joe. "Old Harm's won't let anyone speak ill of her precious Eric" he said the last part in a sing-song voice, much to Joe's amusement.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0oo0

At the end of the day, Joe got a lift back to the mansion with Harmony and Leapfrog. The others had various sports practices to attend.

When they arrived, Joe found Jean and Scott waiting in the hall, dressed in their uniforms. Jean's was jet black with a dark green V shape patterned on the front, and her redhair was held back behind her ears by a headband. Scott's suit was a bleak navy colour with a yellow belt and epaulette's emblazoned with golden X's on them. Instead of his glasses, a gold visor with a single bright red lense covered his eyes.

"How was your day?" Jean said, walking over to Joe and placing her hand on the boys forehead.

"Good...thanks for lunch." he replied half-heartedly, his focus was on the woman's soft skin pressing against his face.

Jean smiled. "Your welcome...but I meant how did you feel?...any headaches?," Joe shook his head. "Good." She took her hand off of Joe's head and walked back to Scott, who was grinning.

"What?" Joe said, a puzzled look covering his face.

"Go check upstairs," Scott said, crossing his arms and leaning back against the banister. "We'll wait for you."

Joe gave the man another odd look before heading up the stairs, the other students following him. Harmony took off up the opposite staircase to Joe and Leapfrog.

Joe reached his room at the end of the hall and, when he opened his door, his jaw actually dropped when he saw what was lying on the bed.

A uniform. Not quite like the others. Made especially for him.

He dropped his bag and lifted the suit off his bed, rubbing the fabric in his hands. It was navy, like the others, with the yellow X belt buckle. But the biggest difference was the sleeves. On each one, a thick yellow stripe trailed from the wrist up around to his shoulder blades. Joe thought it was cool.

"You like it?" he turned to see Jean and the others standing in the doorway.

"Yeah...it's awesome. Thanks."

She walked in and sat on his bed, the others followed but stayed standing. "I hope it fits. We took your size from some of the clothes in your wardrobe but...well they vary." the two smiled to each other.

"It'll be great thanks...everybody, thankyou." he said, nodding to his cohorts to show his gratitude.

Scott grinned widely. "Well that settles it. Get dressed and Leapfrog will bring you down to the danger-room for your first real session." he looked at Harmony as he spoke, who smiled awkwardly.

The group filed out of Joe's room, who closed the door after them, and began undressing. It was official.

He was an X-man.

0oo0oo0oo0oo0

Suited-up and ready to go, Joe stretched his shoulders to allow the suit to mold around his body. It felt a little odd at first, he'd never worn a bodysuit before, but quickly became accustomed to it.

He left his room, meeting Leapfrog outside the door, getting a thumbs up from the smaller boy as he saw Joe for the first time.

"Savvy,"

The two walked down the stairs and into the hallway that held the elevator passage.

"You ready for this bro?" Leapfrog said as the two entered the elevator bay.

Joe nodded in reply. "I'm ready, just a little nervous that I'll go off again...you know."

Leapfrog grinned and elbowed him in the side. "Don't worry about it dude, just don't blow me up or whatever." he joked, pressing the button for the danger-room.  
Joe smiled awkwardly, his throat was dry and his arms were shaking.

In an attempt at taking his mind off what may await him, Joe started to ask questions about the other boy, who leant against the compartment's back wall. "So, where are you from?...you know, originally?"

"Want to know the gang huh?," Joe shrugged. "Fair deuce...I was born in Wisconsin, parents moved there from Nevada about a year before they had me...went to school there...had some friends...played in a band...then one day, I just started jumping real high," he shrugged, looking over to Joe, who nodded. "That's basically it."

The doors opened and they walked out into the viewing room. "You were in a band?...that's so cool." Joe said.

Leapfrog nodded without looking at Joe. "Bass man," he fingered an air-bass as he spoke. "You play anything?" they reached the rest of the team, who surrounded the computer console on the far wall.

"Yeah...some guitar and piano. My mom made me take them."

Leapfrog nodded. "Cool bro...we should jam sometime." the boy jumped up and into his crouching position on a computer desk.

The two turned their attention to Jean and Scott, who were fiddling around on the computers, setting up some training sessions for Joe's first day.

"Alright," Scott said, turning to the group. "Joe, Jean and Harmony are going to work with you, to try and draw out your powers," Joe nodded, trying to look as confident as he could. "Maybe you could give us a little show later?," Joe nodded just to keep the man talking. In all honesty, he was still unsure that he could control them.

"Great. Liam?, I've set up some obstacles for you. You're going to work around them while I have some target practice," he grinned at Leapfrog's stunned expression.  
"Don't worry, I won't even use a fiftieth of my power. The most you'll feel is a sharp sting." The boy's face didn't change.

The group walked into the elevator again and rode it down to the floor, finding a large area that looked much like a children's playground, apart from the fact that there were a few pendulum blades and a series of shock wires set up along it, and then another area on the opposite side with a few targets and weights set-up.

Scott and Leapfrog headed over to the first area, and the others split off to the smaller one.

"What are these for?" Joe asked, surveying the different equipment that littered their area.

"We still don't know exactly what your 'orbs' do," Jean said, placing two fingers to her temple and using her other hand to lift a few of the large weights off the ground in an attempt to make a larger space. "Maybe they lift things, maybe they're a weapon. We don't know."

The three gathered in the middle, not paying attention to the sounds of Scott's optic blasts as he fired at the acrobatic Leapfrog, who scaled the different climbing nets and walls, navigating the various hazards along the way.

"So, what we're going to do is have you release your energy while I control your mind. I think that if I can focus it, we might be able to get a reaction."

Joe nodded, taking a deep breath as Jean took position behind him and placed her hands on his head.

"Good luck." Harmony said to Joe as she took half a dozen steps back. He nodded in thanks and took another breath before closing his eyes.

He felt ill all of a sudden, as the energy from Jean flowed into his mind.

'Alright Joe,' Jean was talking to him from inside. 'Do what i told you...focus, breath, and relax..release all of the stress in your body'

Joe did as he was told. Focusing on nothing but his breathing, and, after a moment, began to feel fuzzy.

'I CAN FEEL IT JOE...KEEP YOUR FOCUS...AND RELAX,"

Joe let all of the tension in his body leave, and a sharp pain shot into his eyes, causing him to open them, revealing the bright colours as they began clouding his vision.

'GOOD JOE...KEEP YOUR FOCUS...I CAN ONLY TO DO SO MUCH,'

Joe did as he was told, keeping his breathing deep and rhythmic, feeling his body lift off the ground a little, before a sudden pain broke his focus and a flash caused him to blackout...

"Joe?...Joe can you hear me?"

The boy opened his eyes. "Where am I?" he found himself looking up at Jean, with the others hanging over her shoulder.

"You're on the floor...you did well though, we managed to form two of your orbs."

Joe shot up from his back and into a sitting position, bracing himself with his arms. "Really?...it worked?," they all smiled. "Awesome." Jean put her hand to his forehead again, and checked his eyes for their response.

"I think that's enough for today." she said, taking away her hand and standing up.

Joe quickly jumped to his feet, the sudden rise made him lose balance for a second, but he managed to regain his composure. "No. I'm fine, really, I just need to focus more, that's it." The group turned to him, all with serious looks on their faces.

Jean turned to Scott. "Well?"

The man looked back and shrugged. "You have to admire his determination," Joe smiled. "Alright everyone, back to it...we've got alot of work to do before we can truly call ourselves a team."


End file.
